Sunday, January 22, 2006

I didn’t like this, Kelley’s 5th novel in her Women of the Otherworld series, nearly as much as the first four. This book centers on Eve, and unlike previous stories, has little to do with any of the other characters I’ve grown to know and love.

Eve is Savannah’s mother, and a ghost in the afterlife. She’s unsettled and is having a difficult time leaving her mortal life behind and embracing her new “afterlife” with Kristof Nash, Savannah’s father whom we met in Dime Store Magic. Even though Eve cannot manifest to interact with Savannah, she still obsesses about a way to make that happen, despite Kris’s attempts to convince her to move on.

The afterlife contains various dimensions, with the one inhabited by Eve and Kris specifically for supernaturals. In many cases, these worlds are very much like the world of the living, though they’re often stuck in the time of their heydey, think 1920’s Chicago, etc. The Fates govern this particular dimension, and decide to send Eve on a quest to hunt and banish an evil demi-demon Nix who has been taking up residence in the bodies of various women and inducing them to kill for the last hundred years. The three previous seekers they’ve sent have all failed, in one way or another, and the Fates are hoping that Eve can succeed where they have failed. She’s assigned an angel partner, Trsiel, who can bring the Nix to justice once Eve has found her, and Kris lends a hand as well.

Eve’s quest to find the Nix is the basic premise of the book, and thus very few characters from the previous book are here. Only Paige, Lucas, and Savannah come into play a little, but not nearly enough. Perhaps that’s one of the greatest reasons I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others. Still, Kelley’s a talented writer, and it was good to find out more about Eve and what makes her tick.